The eye in the sky lingered long after the warning faded.
Its ink-black iris pulsed, watching, studying me as though I were a typo scrawled across a pristine page.
Then, as abruptly as it appeared, the crack sealed. The sky stitched itself shut, leaving only frozen clouds in its wake.
I exhaled shakily. My heartbeat hammered like a drum.
The System's warning still hovered:
[Survive until Tutorial Stabilization.]
My gaze fell on the unfinished quest list.
Eliminate 3 Training Dummies (Completed)
Collect 5 Beginner Herbs (0/5)
Reach Level 2 (0/1)
The first task was done. The next was… herbs.
I turned toward the horizon. The tiled stone ground stretched endlessly, each square identical, each crack repeated like a copied texture. But in the far distance, I saw patches of green—unnatural blotches on this barren chessboard world.
I began walking.
Each step echoed louder than it should, as if the world were hollow beneath me. The silence pressed in again, broken only by the flickering buzz of glitching windows that occasionally popped into existence, showed gibberish, and vanished.
After what felt like hours, the green came into focus.
A field.
Not grass, not forest—just a rectangular patch of vibrant green, perfectly aligned to the tiled ground. As though some lazy developer had slapped a texture onto the world and forgotten to blend it.
At the center grew tall stalks of herbs. Their leaves glowed faintly blue, pulsing like living neon signs.
[Item Detected: Beginner Herb]
Quest Item. Glows unnaturally to ensure players notice it.
I crouched, reaching out. The leaves felt soft, warm, too alive.
The moment I plucked one—
The world groaned.
Tiles beneath me flickered, stuttering between cracked stone and endless void. The herb in my hand wavered, glitching between "Beginner Herb" and strings of corrupted symbols.
And then I heard it.
A low hiss.
I spun around.
The herbs around me were moving. Stalks twisting, bending, knotting together. Blue light spread like veins through the patch until a shape began rising—humanoid, but faceless, made entirely of woven herb-stalks.
Its body crackled with static. The ground beneath it broke into black script, words spilling across the tiles like ink.
[Glitch Entity Detected.]
[Type: Tutorial Error.]
[Objective: Terminate anomaly or flee.]
"Terminate or flee," I muttered. My fists still throbbed from the fight with the dummies. I had no weapon. No real skill. Only…
The System.
"Annotation," I whispered.
The familiar window appeared, cursor blinking.
I typed fast:
[The Glitch Entity should be fragile.]
The window flickered.
[Annotation rejected.]
[Reason: Entity resists narrative edits.]
"What?" My eyes widened.
The stalk-figure moved, jerking like a puppet on tangled strings. Its arm lashed out. I dove aside just as vines slammed into the tiles, cracking stone.
Panic surged. Annotation failed. What else could I do?
Another function. Draft Assimilation.
I scanned the glowing fragments still floating faintly in my chest—remnants of the shattered dummies. The Incomplete Strike fragment.
I activated it.
The air rippled. My fist tingled with unstable energy. I lunged, punching the stalk-creature's torso.
The blow landed, energy bursting outward—
The creature only staggered. Its body unraveled and reformed instantly, vines knitting back together.
"Incomplete," I hissed. Of course it wasn't enough.
The stalk-figure shrieked soundlessly, lunging again.
I scrambled back, heart racing. My eyes darted to the floating windows, searching for anything, anything. Then—
A new one blinked into existence, faint, unstable.
[Emergency Edit: Draft Fusion Available.]
Combine fragments of reality to forge temporary stability.
"Draft Fusion…?"
I didn't have time to think. I dragged the Incomplete Strike fragment into the glowing slot.
The window pulsed. Empty slot detected. Searching for available fragments…
The stalk-figure lunged. Its arm wrapped around my chest, squeezing. Thorns dug into my skin. Pain flared white-hot.
Then—
[Fragment Located: Beginner Herb.]
"What—"
The herb I still clutched in my hand dissolved, threads of light spiraling into the fusion window.
The two fragments merged.
[New Skill Acquired: Verdant Impact (Prototype)]
A martial strike infused with unstable life energy. Restores minor vitality while damaging targets. Temporary—may collapse under stress.
Energy flooded my veins. My fist glowed faint green.
With a roar, I slammed my knuckles into the creature's chest.
BOOM!
The stalk-body exploded in a spray of glowing leaves and glitching text. The vines collapsed, writhing on the ground before disintegrating into pixels.
I fell to my knees, panting. My hands trembled, but my body felt… stronger. The gashes from the thorns were already knitting shut, faint green light stitching my skin.
[Glitch Entity Terminated.]
[Level Up: 1 → 2.]
[Skill Gained Permanently: Verdant Impact (Prototype).]
The quest window updated.
Eliminate 3 Training Dummies (Completed)
Collect 5 Beginner Herbs (1/5)
Reach Level 2 (Completed)
Two tasks down.
But my mind wasn't on the quest.
I stared at my glowing hand. At the fragments still pulsing inside me. At the fading black ink still seared into the ground where the glitch had risen.
This wasn't just a game system. It was a patchwork of scraps, broken code, and unfinished ideas.
And somehow, I was the only one here to stitch it together.
The silence deepened.
For a moment, I thought the world had reset. But then—
Crack.
Another fissure split across the sky. Smaller this time, but darker.
Whispers bled through the gap, words I couldn't understand, like multiple voices arguing over a draft.
And in those whispers, one phrase rang clear:
"—the Candidate persists."
I looked up, heart pounding.
If I was the Candidate… then who had written me?
To be continued…